 /*******************************************************************************
  * Copyright (c) 2000, 2005 IBM Corporation and others.
  * All rights reserved. This program and the accompanying materials
  * are made available under the terms of the Eclipse Public License v1.0
  * which accompanies this distribution, and is available at
  * http://www.eclipse.org/legal/epl-v10.html
  *
  * Contributors:
  * IBM Corporation - initial API and implementation
  *******************************************************************************/
 package org.eclipse.core.resources;

 /**
  * A project nature descriptor contains information about a project nature
  * obtained from the plug-in manifest (<code>plugin.xml</code>) file.
  * <p>
  * Nature descriptors are platform-defined objects that exist
  * independent of whether that nature's plug-in has been started.
  * In contrast, a project nature's runtime object (<code>IProjectNature</code>)
  * generally runs plug-in-defined code.
  * </p>
  * <p>
  * This interface is not intended to be implemented by clients.
  * </p>
  *
  * @see IProjectNature
  * @see IWorkspace#getNatureDescriptor(String)
  * @since 2.0
  */
 public interface IProjectNatureDescriptor {
     /**
      * Returns the unique identifier of this nature.
      * <p>
      * The nature identifier is composed of the nature's plug-in id and the simple
      * id of the nature extension. For example, if plug-in <code>"com.xyz"</code>
      * defines a nature extension with id <code>"myNature"</code>, the unique
      * nature identifier will be <code>"com.xyz.myNature"</code>.
      * </p>
      * @return the unique nature identifier
      */
     public String getNatureId();

     /**
      * Returns a displayable label for this nature.
      * Returns the empty string if no label for this nature
      * is specified in the plug-in manifest file.
      * <p> Note that any translation specified in the plug-in manifest
      * file is automatically applied.
      * </p>
      *
      * @return a displayable string label for this nature,
      * possibly the empty string
      */
     public String getLabel();

     /**
      * Returns the unique identifiers of the natures required by this nature.
      * Nature requirements are specified by the <code>"requires-nature"</code>
      * element on a nature extension.
      * Returns an empty array if no natures are required by this nature.
      *
      * @return an array of nature ids that this nature requires,
      * possibly an empty array.
      */
     public String [] getRequiredNatureIds();

     /**
      * Returns the identifiers of the nature sets that this nature belongs to.
      * Nature set inclusion is specified by the <code>"one-of-nature"</code>
      * element on a nature extension.
      * Returns an empty array if no nature sets are specified for this nature.
      *
      * @return an array of nature set ids that this nature belongs to,
      * possibly an empty array.
      */
     public String [] getNatureSetIds();

     /**
      * Returns whether this project nature allows linked resources to be created
      * in projects where this nature is installed.
      *
      * @return boolean <code>true</code> if creating links is allowed,
      * and <code>false</code> otherwise.
      * @see IFolder#createLink(org.eclipse.core.runtime.IPath, int, org.eclipse.core.runtime.IProgressMonitor)
      * @see IFile#createLink(org.eclipse.core.runtime.IPath, int, org.eclipse.core.runtime.IProgressMonitor)
      * @since 2.1
      */
     public boolean isLinkingAllowed();
 }

